Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/696

 RACCOLTA

620

RACE

fictions seem to be a veil behind which he conceals his ideas, for he desires his readers to imitate the dog to whom a bone has been thrown and who must break it in order to reach the marrow. But many of his gigantic buffooneries were merely the satisfaction of a vast humour and a boundless imagination. He took pleasure in the worst obscenities. His vocabu- lary is rich and picturesque, but licentious and filthy. In short, as La Bruyere says: "His book is a riddle which may be considered inexplicable. Where it is bad it is beyond the worst; it has the charm of the rabble; where it is gootl it is excellent and exquisite; it may be the daintiest of dishes." As a whole it exercises a baneful influence.

Ed. Marty-Laveaux, 0pp. (Paris, 1872); Staffer, Rabelais (Paris, 1889).

Georges Bertrin.

Raccolta (Ital., "a collection"), a book contain- ing prayers and pious exercises to which the popes have attached indulgences. The full title of the last official edition is: "Raccolta di orazioni e pie opere, per le quali sono state concesse dai Sommi Pontefici le SS. Indulgenze" (Rome, 1898). The Raccolta was first published at Rome in 1807 by Telesforo Galli, one of the consultors of the Congregation of Indulgences. In the sixth edition there is printed a Decree, dated 30 Nov., 1825, which recognizes the indulgences as authentic, and in the eleventh — the last published by Canon Galli — there is a Decree, dated 13 Nov., 1843, which approves the Raccolta aa " prffilaudatum opus omnibus Christifidelibua vivis atque defunctis maxime perutile". Two new edi- tions were published by Aloysius Prinzivalli, sub- stitute secretary of the congregation, and were specially approved by a Decree of 15 Dec, 1854. The editions of 1877, 1886, and 1898 are the official publications of the Sacred Congregation of Indul- gences and Holy Relics (see Roman Curia). The Raccolta contains, arranged in convenient order, the prayers, novenas, pious practices, etc. to which general indulgences have been attached, as well as the decrees and rescripts granting the indulgences, and the conditions requisite for gaining them. All the indulgences contained in the Raccolta are ap- plicable to the souls in purgatory. It is forbidden to publish a translation of the entire Raccolta without the approval of the Roman congregation (Decret. auth., nn. 361, 415). There is an approved edition of the Raccolta in English, especially adapted for the use of the faithful.

Decreta authentica (Ratisbon, 1883); Collection des decrets authentiques des sacrees congregations romaines (Paris, 1868); Berinqer, Die Abldsse, ihr Wesen und Gebrauch (Paderborn, 1900; French tr., Paris, 1905); Madrel, The Christian Instructed in the Nature and Use of Indulgences, tr. (1875); The New Raccolta (Philadelphia, 1900).

F. X. Delant.

Race, Human. — Mankind exhibits differences which have been variously interpreted. Some consider them so great that they regard the varieties of the human race as distinct species; others maintain the unity of the human race, looking upon the differ- ences as not sufficiently great to constitute different species. The apjiarently imlimited fertility of crossed races is a fact in favour of the unity of mankind. The diversities are indeed only quantitative, the difference between the most opposite varieties (e. g. the darkest blacks and the lightest whites) being bridged over by numerous intermediate stages. The unity of mankind is moreover supported by the intellectual similarity apparent between the most primitive savages and the representatives of the liighcst culture. The various types of human beings now living are only different races. G. Schwalbe thought that the primitive Quaternary type of man with the prominent bridges, low braincap, chinle.ss lower jaw, etc. (the Ikhiki priDiigi'idiix), must lie

distinguished aa a separate species from the homo sapiens. The peculiarities of this homo primigenius, he claimed, did not fall within the limits of the variations of the homo sapiens. However, the re- searches of H. Klaatsch, especially his investigation of the skulls of the aboriginal Australians, show that the same peculiarities are to be found even in men now living. Consequently, the homo primigenius is simply one of the races of mankind, although a primitive one.

The physical differences found in the human race may be grouped together into basic types or "races", which are divided further into sub-races. Another grouping is into "nations" and "tribes", which may be described as political units of men of like speech and customs. The investigation of physical dif- ferences is the task of anthropology (the science of man), whose duty it is to establish numerically in the most exact manner possible the conspicuous differ- ences between the fundamental types and between the mixed races arising from them. A number of meth- ods may be used to attain this end. The method of height and measurement aims at expressing math- ematically the differences in size, whether of the whole body or of its parts. The ratio of the different measurements is computed, thus obtaining relative measurements or indices, and the angles which dif- ferent parts of the body form with one another are determined. For this purpose the greatest possible number of individuals of a race are measured; the average of the results is regarded as the expression of the racial peculiarity, or the results are represented in the form of curves which express the numerical values derived from the study of a group. As ab- solute and relative measurements alone do not suf- fice to determine racial peculiarities, outline drawings have of late been resorted to, and the forms thus obtained have been compared. This method has the advantage that all possible dimensions and angles can be measured later independently of the object. On these outline drawings or projections H. Klaatsch con- structed triangles and quadrangles (cranio-trigonome- try), or sought to define the curves as segments of circles (cyclography of the skull).

To the graphical method and that of measurement should also be added the description of morphological peculiarities. The most striking difference in men is that of stature. Consequently, it has been attempted to separate races into groups according to this crite- rion. Even in Europe, marked differences have been shown to exist between the tall northern peoples of Scandinavia, England, and North Germany on the one hand, and the low statured peoples of the Mediterra- nean (especially the Italians) on the other. In other regions also tall races are found, e. g. the Fuegians; other races are distinguished by their extremely low stature, e. g. the Bushmen of Africa, the Lapps of the Arctic, above all the extremely small tribes of the forests of Central and Western Africa (stature generally under four feet eleven inches), who are now grouped together as Pygmies, and the natives of the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, the Semand of Malacca, and the Negrites of the Philippines. While the weight of the body, depending greatly on external causes, is not serviceable for differentiation, the proportions of the body on the other hand vary in different races. The primitive races are characterized in particular by a short trunk, long arms, and long legs, in contrast to the civilized peoples, who have a long trunk, short arms, and short legs. The differences, however, are not greater than those between members of different classes in one and the same people, as J. Ranke has proved. G. Fritsch made use of the length of the spinal column for the comparison of the bodily pro- portions {modulus). In this way he constructed a canon or general rule, which Stratz utilized in com- paring various peoples: the white race has the pro-